"I had a promising career as a technical engineer for a major software developer and had mouths to feed", says Ken. "Although full-time music was not a viable option at the time, I still continued to write, record, play guitar and perform."
After riding through the ups and downs of the early internet and dotcom rise and demise, in 2004, Ken gave up the corporate lifestyle completely and focused all his efforts on music - primarily teaching and performing.
"Had I pursued a career in music at an earler age, I would probably not be here to talk about it. My early experiences with the music business, were more about the destructive lifestyle than they were the music. When I made the switch, I was psychologically ready and I hadn't burned myself out like a lot of guys who had done it all their lives."
Ken K began playing guitar and writing songs when he was 14 years old in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan. Weaned on the Beatles, Stones, Zeppelin and other late 60's and 70's rock icons like David Bowie, Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, Ken redirected his interests to acoustic music and immersed himself in the likes of songwriters Jackson Browne, Dan Fogelberg and Bob Dylan while in college. He also began recording his original music on his four-track cassette home studio while studying electronic and computer-based production techniques.
Because of his diverse interests in music, he found it very easy to play mellower music on electric guitar while completely rocking out on acoustic guitar - which is one of his trademark performance characteristics today. In a live setting, Ken uses both types of guitar and live looping technology (simultaneously playing and recording music and layering multiple tracks on demand). No backing tracks are used and the sounds are not only immense, but fresh, unique and unpredictable.
"Sometimes I go out on a limb live," says Ken. "I'll get five or six guitar tracks going and one mistake can blow the whole thing!"
These days Ken K is a popular local performer and an in-demand instructor. He has self produced and engineered his CD, "Finding 99" (2007) and also produces and records at his project studio. He is a beta tester for major music equipment manufacturer, Line6, as well as a major music software company. He lives in a rural neighborhood of suburban Denver with his wife, dogs, horses and chickens.
"Life is very good for me right now," Ken states, "I am so very grateful for every moment that I have, every moment that I've been given, and every moment I've yet to experience. Be livin' it!"
